Five orchestra students were selected to join the All State Orchestra, joining the top 1% of musicians in the state.  Students have been preparing since may, learning the music on their own time while also preparing for region auditions.

Director of Orchestras Julie Blackstock is proud of her students for taking the initiative to practice and dedicate themselves to achieving this feat. 

“Students learn [sheet music] on their own, with their private instructor, while also simultaneously learning different music for All-Region auditions,” Blackstock said. “This is done on their own merit, no teamwork or teammates to rely oy, simply their own discipline, attention to detail, and talent. Mr. Lucio and I have no involvement except to give them feedback in the last two weeks before their recorded audition. Our students are simply amazing.”

The competition pieces included five professional-level excerpts alongside two challenging etudes.Senior Annaliese Burkle was one of five students who made the All State orchestra. Burkle felt the audition was a chance to demonstrate her skills and hard work.

“I think it’s a really big accomplishment cause not many people like make it to all state,” Burkle said. “It just shows that my hard work has paid off throughout all the years.”

These are the five students who made All State: 

• Eunho Kim – Sinfonietta Orchestra
• Kevin Xu – Sinfonietta Orchestra
• Rishab Srivatsan – Philharmonic Orchestra, 2nd year All-State musician
• Justin Yamashita – Sinfonietta Orchestra
• Annaliese Burkle – Symphony/Philharmonic Orchestras